of the largest producers of fluid milk in an area gradually transitioning from diverse animal farming to dairy farming. In the late 1840s the New York and Harlem Railroad, the state's first, was built through the area. A neighbor, John Wheeler, petitioned the Post Office to open a branch in the area, then known as Oblong due to its location in a thus-shaped region at the center of colonial-era land dispute between New York and Connecticut. In 1853 the post office was designated. Ten months later Barrett was appointed its first postmaster. He served in the position for 14 years, during which he was also a local justice of the peace. 1853–1915: First version of house Barrett married his first wife, Catherine Hornfager, in late 1854, a year after assuming the postmaster's responsibilities. It is believed the house was built sometime before his wedding, though its origins are unclear. Local tax maps do not show a house at the location until 1867, but the house's initial architectural style, combining a basic Federal appearance with some late Greek Revival touches, strongly suggests a construction date prior to the Civil War. It would have been common for a prosperous young farmer to move into a new house with his bride at the time of their wedding, as well. The house's interior suggests either the expansion or reconstruction of an existing house, possibly after a fire. The first story's corner fireplace, and the stone foundation beneath one of the parlors, may be the remnants of an older, prior structure. It has also been suggested that a smaller house elsewhere was moved to the current site and used as the basis for an expanded house. A railroad station was built nearby in the late 1860s. It would eventually lead to the area being known as Coleman's Station after Amasa Coleman, the local entrepreneur who lobbied what was by then the New York Central Railroad for a station that could serve the dairy farmers primarily, since the Sharon station several miles to the south was handling both their produce and passenger traffic from wealthy summer vacationers heading to and from New York City and the town of the same name across the state line. In 1872 the Post Office officially changed the name of the local office to Coleman's Station from Oblong. Oliver Barrett resumed the postmaster's duties with the name change. His wife had